Secret Recording Reveals Staples Held Captive Audience Union-Busting Meeting

Last Monday, workers at an Atlanta-area Staples fulfillment center seeking to organize with the Teamsters union showed up to work wearing union buttons as a sign of solidarity. By the end of the week, they were being forced to attend a mandatory captive-audience meeting in which they were read the company’s anti-union script. The meeting was secretly recorded and has now made it to the Internet (via Lee Fang).

PART ONE

PART TWO

Part 1 of the audio begins with a company rep describing the ‘dangers’ of organizing. The workers are then shown an anti-union video. Part 2 features the real highlight of the recording: workers voicing their displeasure about the manner in which they are being treated and demanding their rights be respected.

The entire event is unfortunate, but it is a pleasure to hear the workers continually turn the meeting into an airing of grievances over working conditions.

Late last year, a petition to keep Staples from cutting work hours to avoid providing health care cleared 200,000 signatures.